JPH06161655A - Joy stick - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a non-contact shape joy stick with high reliability. CONSTITUTION:A magnet 8 arranged so as to face against an XY two-dimensional detection sensor coil 12 is arranged at the end part of the shaft 6 of a top-shape freely movable joint 2. Therefore, the direction of magnetic fluxes which generates from the magnet 8 is changed in accordance with the operation of a knob 7 is utilized so that an XY two-dimensional electric signal is obtained from the sensor coil 12. As the sensor coil 12, two pairs of saturable coils in an XY direction can be used. Since the sensor coil 12 is not being in contact with the magnet 8, structure is simple, service life is semi-external and the joy stick of high reliability is obtained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is suitable for application to construction machines such as aircraft, simulators therefor, cranes and power shovels, and XY two-axis data input devices for computers, and is capable of two-dimensional position detection. Joystick.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sliding potentiometer has been used as a detector for a joystick. This potentiometer is a one-dimensional detector. Therefore, two potentiometers are required to obtain the XY two-dimensional detection output.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned conventional two-dimensional joystick has a complicated mechanical structure because it requires two potentiometers, and the potentiometer itself is a sliding type. Therefore, there is a problem that the life is relatively short and the reliability is also relatively low.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a non-contact type joystick having high reliability.

[0005]

The present invention is described in, for example, FIG.
As shown in Fig. 1, the case 1 in which the top type universal joint 2 is arranged
And the shaft-shaped universal joint 2 is provided with the shafts 5 and 6, and the case 1
One of the shafts 5 exposed to the outside is the operation unit 7, and the case 1
A plate-shaped magnetizing body 8 is coaxially arranged on the other end of the shaft 6 disposed inside the shaft 6 and faces the magnetizing body 8 in the case 1 so that the magnetic flux of the magnetizing body 8 is generated. A two-dimensional magnetic sensor 12 having a saturable coil for detection is arranged, and a signal according to the operation of the operation unit 7 is obtained from the two-dimensional magnetic sensor 12.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the magnet body 8 disposed in the case 1 and facing the two-dimensional magnetic sensor 12 for detecting the magnetic flux is provided with the magnet body 8 at the end of the shaft 6 in the case 1 of the top type universal joint 2. It is located in. Therefore, it is possible to obtain from the two-dimensional magnetic sensor 12 an XY two-dimensional signal corresponding to the operation of the operation unit 7 of the shaft 5 exposed to the outside of the case 1.

Since the two-dimensional magnetic sensor 12 and the magnet body 8 are not in contact with each other, the structure is simple, the life is semipermanent, and a highly reliable joystick can be obtained.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the joystick of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the structure of a joystick according to this embodiment. In FIG. 1, a top universal joint 2 is fixed on a central axis P of a hollow flange-shaped case 1. The top-shaped universal joint 2 includes a sliding bearing 3 having a spherical surface 3a, and a spherical portion 4 that engages the spherical surface 3a of the bearing 3 with a frictional force. The bearing 3 is composed of two ring-shaped members divided in the arrow V direction (vertical direction, in this case, the vertical direction).

In the spherical portion 4, shafts 5 and 6 are integrally arranged in both directions of an arrow H direction orthogonal to the arrow V direction.
A knob 7 as an operating portion is attached to the end of the shaft 5 exposed to the outside of the case 1. A disk-shaped permanent magnet 8 (magnetism generator) is coaxially attached to the end surface of the shaft 6 arranged inside the case 1. The magnet 8 is magnetized in the thickness direction (direction of arrow V in FIG. 1),
The upward direction is, for example, the S pole, and the downward direction is the N pole.
A sensor coil 12 fixed to a mounting plate 13 is coaxially arranged facing the magnet 8.

The main body 10 of the joystick constructed as described above is assembled as follows.

First, the lower member of the bearing 3 is arranged in the case 1, then the portion integrated with the spherical portion 4 is arranged as shown in the figure, and then the upper part of the bearing 3 is arranged. The members of are stacked. A donut-shaped flat plate 9 is superposed on it, and the bearing 3 is fixed to the case 1. And
The joystick body 10 is completed by fixing the flat plate 9 to the upper surface of the case 1 with bolts. In this example, the axis 5 can be moved from the central axis P in all directions by an angle θ = approximately ± 23 °.

In this state, the mounting plate 13 on which the sensor coil 12 as a magnetic sensor for detecting the magnetic flux generated from the magnet 8 is arranged and fixed in advance is fixed by a screw to the step portion formed inside the case 1. Then, the sensor coil 12 is arranged facing the N pole surface of the magnet 8. The sensor coil 12 is coaxially attached to the magnet 8 with the axis 5 (axis 6) and the central axis P aligned.

The main body 10 having the above-described structure is the base 1
Placed on the 4th. In this embodiment, the base 14 is assumed to be a horizontal surface.

FIG. 2 shows the detailed structure of the sensor coil 12 and the positional relationship with the magnet 8. As described above, the magnet 8 has one surface magnetized to the N pole and the other surface magnetized to the S pole, so that the magnetic flux φ is radially generated from the center Q.

The sensor coil 12 has a square ring-shaped core 20 made of permalloy, and coils 21 to 24 are wound around each side of the core 20.

Of the sensor coils 12, a pair of coils 21 and 22 arranged in parallel with each other in the X-axis direction in the horizontal plane function as an X-axis sensor coil 12a having terminals 25 to 27. The wires are connected as shown in FIG. An X-axis detection circuit 31a is connected to the X-axis sensor coil 12a as shown in FIG. The X-axis detection circuit 31a may be arranged inside the main body 10 together with the sensor coil 12 on the mounting plate 13, or may be arranged outside the case 1 as a separate body from the main body 10.

The X-axis detection circuit 31a is a commonly used circuit. OSC is a voltage oscillator that generates a square wave pulse signal of about 50 kHz, T is a transformer, Rs is a series resistor, and D1, D2 is a diode, R1 and R2 are output resistors, and C1 to C3 are output capacitors.

A pulse signal from the secondary side of the transformer T
As shown by the arrows, the coils 21 and 22 flow in the same direction and flow to the resistors Rs and Rs side and the diodes D1 and D2 side. In this state, the coil 21 and the coil 22 forming the X-axis sensor coil 12a are brought into a saturated magnetization state (saturable coil). Here, the axis of the magnet 8 and the sensor coil 12
When the magnet 8 and the sensor coil 12 are arranged in parallel with each other when the axes of and coincide with each other (in the case shown in FIGS. 1 and 2), the output terminal 3 of the X-axis detection circuit 31a.
The value of the output voltage signal ex appearing between 3 and 34 becomes zero.

FIG. 4 shows the output voltage signal ex when the knob 7 is tilted in the X-axis direction within the range of the angle θ = ± 23 °, that is, the magnet 8 is tilted in the X-axis direction with respect to the sensor coil 12.
The change characteristic 35 of the value of is shown. The component of the magnetic flux φ (see FIG. 2) in the X-axis direction changes with the change of the angle θ = ± 23 °, and the output voltage signal corresponding to the change of the inductance of the coil 21 and the coil 22 according to the change. It can be seen that the value of ex changes linearly between about ± 1V. this is,
As is well known, the phenomenon in which the reactances of the coils 21 and 22 change to mutually different values due to the difference in changes in the DC excitation of the saturable coils is used.

Therefore, the voltage signal e appearing between the output terminals 33 and 34 of the X-axis detection circuit 31a based on the magnetic flux in the X-axis direction detected by the coils 21 and 22.
The inclination of the magnet 8 with respect to the sensor coil 12, that is, the inclination angle θ of the shaft 5 (knob 7) in the X-axis direction can be detected by x.

On the other hand, another pair of coils 23 and 24, which are arranged parallel to each other in the Y-axis direction, are connected to terminals 28 to 28.
The Y-axis sensor coil 12b includes a Y-axis sensor coil 12b and is connected to a Y-axis detection circuit 31b, which is another detection circuit having the same configuration as the X-axis detection circuit 31a. Therefore, coil 2
3 and the coil 24 detects the inclination of the magnet 8 with respect to the sensor coil 12 by the voltage signal ey appearing between the output terminals 35 and 36 of the Y-axis detection circuit 31b based on the magnetic flux in the Y-axis direction, that is, the axis 5 ( The tilt angle θ of the knob 7) in the Y-axis direction can be detected. The change characteristic of the output voltage signal ey with respect to the inclination angle θ is the characteristic 35 exactly the same as that shown in FIG.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, when the shaft 5, and hence the magnet 8, is tilted only in the X-axis direction,
The magnetic flux φ interlinking the coil 21 and the coil 22 for detecting the inclination in the X-axis direction becomes unbalanced (different values), but Y
Since the magnetic flux φ interlinking the coil 23 and the coil 24 for detecting the inclination in the axial direction changes in the same phase (same value), the axis 5 moves in the X direction.
It can be seen that the voltage signal ey between the output terminals 35 and 36 of the Y-axis detection circuit 31b does not change and has a zero value when it is swung in the axial direction.

In addition, Japanese Patent Application No. 1-2779 filed by the applicant
As disclosed in the '90 specification, the sensor coil 12
May be separately configured into a core in which the coil 21 and the coil 22 are wound and a core in which the coil 23 and the coil 24 are wound. In any case, one set of coils for detecting the component of the magnetic flux φ generated by the magnet 8 in the X-axis direction and the other set of coils for detecting the Y-axis component in order to function as a two-dimensional magnetic sensor. 2 sets of coils are required.

As described above, the relative inclination of the disk-shaped magnet 8 is controlled by the detection coil 31 and the sensor coil 12 in which the coils 21 to 24 are wound around the respective sides of the square ring-shaped core 20. The detection technology is also Japanese Patent Application No. 1-2779 mentioned above.
Published in specification 90.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the sensor coil 12 having the two sets of coils 21, 22, 23, and 24 is arranged and fixed in the case 1, and the sensor coil 1 is fixed.
The magnet 8 is arranged so as to face 2. The magnet 8 is fixed to the end surface of the shaft 6 in the case 1 of the top type universal joint 4. Therefore, the knob 7 attached to the end portion of the shaft 5 outside the case 1 is attached to the spherical surface 3 of the bearing 3 in the XY two-dimensional directions.
By arbitrarily making a rotational displacement along a, an XY two-dimensional output voltage signal e (ex, ey) corresponding to the rotational displacement is obtained.
XY vector components of) can be obtained from the Y-axis detection circuit 30 and the X-axis detection circuit 31, respectively.

In this case, since the sensor coil 12 and the magnet 8 are not in contact with each other, the structure is simple, the life is semipermanent, and a highly reliable joystick can be obtained. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for application to industrial equipment that requires high reliability. In addition, the structure is simple and it can be manufactured at low cost.

In the example of FIG. 1, since the top universal joint 2 itself has an appropriate frictional force, it is possible to hold the knob 7 at a predetermined rotational position without using a mechanism such as a spring.
Depending on the purpose, the shaft 6 or the shaft 5 may be configured to be radially pulled from each direction by a spring, and may be deformed into a structure that returns to the origin when the knob 7 is released.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and it goes without saying that various configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A magnetizing body, which is arranged in the case and faces a two-dimensional magnetic sensor for detecting magnetic flux, is arranged at an end of the case-shaped universal joint on the inner shaft side of the case. Therefore, an XY two-dimensional signal corresponding to the operation of the operating portion of the shaft exposed outside the case can be obtained from the magnetic sensor.

Since the magnetic sensor and the magnetic generator are not in contact with each other, the structure is simple, the life is semipermanent, and a highly reliable joystick can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a sensor coil and a magnet in the example of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a connection configuration of the sensor coil and a detection circuit.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram showing an output characteristic of the detection circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Case 2 Top-shaped universal joint 7 Knob (operating part) 8 Magnet (magnetizer) 12 Sensor coil (magnetic sensor)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A case in which a top-shaped universal joint is arranged, and a shaft is arranged in the top-shaped universal joint, and one of the shafts exposed to the outside of the case serves as an operating portion and is arranged in the case. At the other end of the shaft, a flat plate-shaped magnetic body is arranged coaxially with the shaft, and a saturable coil that faces the magnetic body in the case and detects a magnetic flux of the magnetic body is provided. A joystick in which a two-dimensional magnetic sensor is arranged and a signal according to an operation of the operation unit is obtained from the two-dimensional magnetic sensor.